Acciona is very proud of the project, company President Jose Manuel Entrecanales said during the ceremony.

“What were previously called ‘non-conventional’ renewable energy sources are today the sources that will impose themselves over all the other technologies of (power) generation,” he said.

El Romero Solar, which was built at a cost of $343 million in a record time of only 13 months, is projected to avert the emission of roughly 485,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

The new installation “reinforces Chile’s leadership in the development of solar energy,” Energy Minister Andres Rebolledo said, adding that the Andean nation was on a path toward a “sustainable and non-polluting” energy matrix.

Chile currently produces 45 percent of its electricity from renewables, the minister said.

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